What is Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe?

1. Begin at Buley Library's Home Page (http://www.library.southernct.edu).
2. Click on the "Online Databases" link.
3. If you are in the library or on campus, or have connected to a database from off-campus before, skip to the next step. If you connecting to a database for the first time with an off-campus ISP (such as SNET, AT&T, or AOL), click on the "Off-Campus Access Instructions" link and follow the directions about changing your browser settings and selecting a PIN number. Directions for browser settings and PIN numbers are also provided in our "Library Access from Home" handout.
4. Select Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe from any of the pull down menus.
5. Select an area to search from the Lexis Nexis menu.

Search tips for Lexis-Nexis:

• Type your keywords into the blank box.

  Use AND to include two or more ideas (ex: women and medicine).

  Use OR to include similar terms (ex: doctors or physicians).

  Words that are not separated by AND or OR are read as a phrase (ex: women doctors).

  Use W/# to find words within a fixed number of words from each other regardless of order (ex: poe W/3 edgar will find edgar allan poe).

  Use W/p to find words in the same paragraph regardless of order (ex: censorship W/p music will find music and censorship in the same paragraph).

  Use W/s to find words within the same sentence regardless of order (ex: Blume W/s banned will find banned and Blume in the same sentence).

  Use PRE/# to find words in a specific order where one word must precede the other within a set number of words (ex: cable PRE/2 television finds cable television but not television cables).

  Use ! at the end of a word to search for root words with many endings (ex: child! will find child, child's, childhood, children, and so on).

  Use * to replace a letter within a word (ex: wom*n will find woman and women).

• The keyword search only searches the title, lead paragraph and index terms of the items in the database. To expand your search, type one keyword in the top box and type your other terms in the "Additional Terms" box. You can use AND and OR here as well.
• Most areas in Lexis-Nexis allow you to choose "Source Material." For example, the General News area lets you search "Major Newspapers," "All Magazines," or a variety of regional periodicals. Select from the pull-down menu.
• The default period for searches is 6 months. You can increase it by selecting from the pull-down menu, or specify dates in the boxes provided. Most date formats are accepted (ex: 7/4/99; July 4, 1999; 07/99 and so on).
• Use the navigation buttons to change databases, refine your search, and so on. DO NOT USE THE BACK BUTTON ON YOUR BROWSER! If you use the back button, you will eventually be dumped out of the database and have to start over.

Reading results:

The Results List gives a full citation for each article retrieved by your search: author, title, and journal information.

Click on the magazine title (or whatever is blue) to see the full article.

Printing:

1. Print out individual records as you view them by pressing the print button on the browser menu.
2. When the dialogue box appears, hit the "Enter" key or click on "OK."

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